System and method for in-game advertising to assist in recruiting of affiliation members

Abstract

A system and method for providing in-game advertising to assist in recruiting of affiliation members in an online game. The system and method include receiving affiliation advertising bids from affiliations for advertising opportunities. A bid indicating an aggregate amount of consideration is pledged by multiple users in an affiliation on behalf of the affiliation in a competitive auction with other affiliations for an advertising opportunity and determining winning affiliation advertising bids in competitive auctions for advertising opportunities. The system and method further include effectuating presentation of affiliation advertising content in advertising opportunities for affiliations that submit winning affiliation advertising bids such that in response to the first affiliation advertising bid being determined to be the winning affiliation advertising bid in the competitive auction for the first advertising opportunity, affiliation advertising content associated with the first affiliation is presented in the first advertising opportunity.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A system configured to provide in-game advertising to assist in recruiting of affiliation members in an online game, the system comprising:
 one or more physical computer processors configured by machine-readable instructions to:
 execute an instance of an online game, and to implement the instance of the online game to facilitate participation of the user in the online game via client computing platforms; 
 record memberships of users in affiliations, wherein affiliations are relationships between groups of users that have functional implications in the online game, the affiliations including a first affiliation to which a set of the users belong; 
 receive affiliation advertising bids from the affiliations for advertising opportunities, the affiliation advertising bids including a first affiliation advertising bid from the users in the first affiliation for a first advertising opportunity, the first affiliation advertising bid indicating an aggregate amount of consideration pledged by multiple users in the first affiliation on behalf of the first affiliation in a competitive auction with other affiliations for the first advertising opportunity; 
 determine winning affiliation advertising bids in competitive auctions for advertising opportunities; and 
 effectuate presentation of affiliation advertising content in advertising opportunities for affiliations that submit winning affiliation advertising bids such that in response to the first affiliation advertising bid being determined to be the winning affiliation advertising bid in the competitive auction for the first advertising opportunity, affiliation advertising content associated with the first affiliation is presented in the first advertising opportunity. 
 
 
     
     
       2. The system of  claim 1  wherein the one or more physical computer processors are configured such that the first advertising opportunity includes one or more of space in views of the online game presented to the users on the client computing platforms, a banner ad presented on a web page associated with the online game, an email, a pop up provided with views of the online game presented to the users on the client computing platforms, space in a login modal, or presented in views of a game leaderboard. 
     
     
       3. The system of  claim 1  wherein the one or more physical computer processors are further configured to receive entry and/or selection of the affiliation advertising content from users in the affiliations that have won the auctions. 
     
     
       4. The system of  claim 1  wherein the affiliation advertising content includes information about criteria for a desired member and a mission statement of the winning affiliation. 
     
     
       5. The system of  claim 1  wherein the one or more physical computer processors are further configured to receive each of the multiple pledged affiliation advertising considerations as hard currency offers. 
     
     
       6. The system of  claim 1  wherein the one or more physical computer processors are further configured to receive each of the multiple individual user pledged affiliation advertising considerations as hard currency offers to form the aggregate amount of consideration pledged by the multiple users in the first affiliation on behalf of the first affiliation representing, for the first affiliation, a sum of the total hard currencies offered by each member of the first affiliation. 
     
     
       7. The system of  claim 6  wherein the one or more physical computer processors are further configured to effectuate presentation of each of the individual user pledged affiliation advertising considerations along with information about each respective associated affiliation member. 
     
     
       8. The system of  claim 6  wherein the one or more physical computer processors are further configured to effectuate presentation, on an affiliation bid interface, of each of the individual user pledged affiliation advertising considerations along with information about each respective associated affiliation member. 
     
     
       9. The system of  claim 1  wherein the one or more physical computer processors are further configured to provide advertising content tools for generating the affiliation advertising content. 
     
     
       10. The system of  claim 9  wherein the one or more physical computer processors are further configured to verify a final version of the affiliation advertising content is in accordance with game constraints or standards. 
     
     
       11. The system of  claim 9  wherein the one or more physical computer processors are further configured to verify a final version of the affiliation advertising content is in accordance with game constraints or standards, and to produce a notification when the game constraints or standards are not met. 
     
     
       12. The system of  claim 10  wherein the one or more physical computer processors are further configured to produce a notification including a warning that violations will result in a penalty or disbanding of the affiliation team. 
     
     
       13. The system of  claim 1  wherein the presentation of the affiliation advertising content is associated with a presentation time window or a time duration associated with the first advertising opportunity. 
     
     
       14. The system of  claim 1  wherein the one or more physical computer processors are further configured to determine which of the received affiliation advertising bids is the highest, and to award the affiliation which placed the highest affiliation advertising bid as being the winning alliance team, and to provide the winning affiliation with the presentation of their affiliation advertising content on the alliance bid interface. 
     
     
       15. The system of  claim 1  wherein the one or more physical computer processors are further configured to determine which of the received affiliation advertising bids is not the highest, and to refund each affiliation, which did not place the highest affiliation advertising bid, a refund. 
     
     
       16. A computer-implemented method for providing in-game advertising to assist in recruiting of affiliation members in an online game, the method being implemented in a computer system that includes one or more physical processors and storage media storing machine-readable instructions, the method comprising:
 executing an instance of an online game; 
 implementing the instance of the online game to facilitate participation of the user in the online game; 
 providing a gaming interface to the user; 
 recording memberships of users in affiliations, wherein affiliations are relationships between groups of users that have functional implications in the online game, the affiliations including a first affiliation to which a set of the users belong; 
 receiving affiliation advertising bids from the affiliations for advertising opportunities, the affiliation advertising bids including a first affiliation advertising bid from the users in the first affiliation for a first advertising opportunity, the first affiliation advertising bid indicating an aggregate amount of consideration pledged by multiple users in the first affiliation on behalf of the first affiliation in a competitive auction with other affiliations for the first advertising opportunity; 
 determining winning affiliation advertising bids in competitive auctions for advertising opportunities; and 
 effectuating presentation of affiliation advertising content in advertising opportunities for affiliations that submit winning affiliation advertising bids such that in response to the first affiliation advertising bid being determined to be the winning affiliation advertising bid in the competitive auction for the first advertising opportunity, affiliation advertising content associated with the first affiliation is presented in the first advertising opportunity. 
 
     
     
       17. The method of  claim 16  wherein the first advertising opportunity includes one or more of space in views of the online game presented to the users on the client computing platforms, a banner ad presented on a web page associated with the online game, an email, a pop up provided with views of the online game presented to the users on the client computing platforms, space in a login modal, or presented in views of a game leaderboard. 
     
     
       18. The method of  claim 16  further comprising receiving entry and/or selection of the affiliation advertising content from users in the affiliations that have won the auctions. 
     
     
       19. The method of  claim 16  wherein the affiliation advertising content includes information about criteria for a desired member and a mission statement of the winning affiliation. 
     
     
       20. The method of  claim 16  further comprising receiving each of the multiple pledged affiliation advertising considerations as hard currency offers. 
     
     
       21. The method of  claim 16  further comprising receiving each of the multiple individual user pledged affiliation advertising considerations as hard currency offers to form the aggregate amount of consideration pledged by the multiple users in the first affiliation on behalf of the first affiliation representing, for the first affiliation, a sum of the total hard currencies offered by each member of the first affiliation. 
     
     
       22. The method of  claim 21  further comprising effectuating presentation of each of the individual user pledged affiliation advertising considerations along with information about each respective associated affiliation member. 
     
     
       23. The method of  claim 21  further comprising effectuating presentation, on an affiliation bid interface, of each of the individual user pledged affiliation advertising considerations along with information about each respective associated affiliation member. 
     
     
       24. The method of  claim 16  further comprising providing advertising content tools for generating the affiliation advertising content. 
     
     
       25. The method of  claim 24  further comprising verifying a final version of the affiliation advertising content is in accordance with game constraints or standards. 
     
     
       26. The method of  claim 24  further comprising verifying a final version of the affiliation advertising content is in accordance with game constraints or standards, and to produce a notification when the game constraints or standards are not met. 
     
     
       27. The method of  claim 25  further comprising producing a notification including a warning that violations will result in a penalty or disbanding of the affiliation team. 
     
     
       28. The method of  claim 16  wherein the presentation of the affiliation advertising content is associated with a presentation time window or a time duration associated with the first advertising opportunity. 
     
     
       29. The method of  claim 16  further comprising determining which of the received affiliation advertising bids is the highest, and to award the affiliation which placed the highest affiliation advertising bid as being the winning alliance team, and to provide the winning affiliation with the presentation of their affiliation advertising content on the alliance bid interface. 
     
     
       30. The method of  claim 16  further comprising determining which of the received affiliation advertising bids is not the highest, and to refund each affiliation, which did not place the highest affiliation advertising bid, a refund.